


Illusions of Truth

by chaletian



Category: Fringe
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-20
Updated: 2012-11-20
Packaged: 2017-11-19 03:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaletian/pseuds/chaletian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Etta is sixteen when she finds out about the original Fringe Department, about Walter’s experiments, about Peter Bishop and Agent Dunham, about the Observers and a plan to stop them; she is seventeen when she joins the Resistance and eighteen when she joins Fringe Division.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Illusions of Truth

Etta knows that she’s adopted; knows that her parents died during the Purge. She says, when people ask, that she doesn’t really remember them, but it’s not true. She does remember them.

oOo

When Etta is twelve, she has a friend called Max, who lives down the street with his grandpa. They go exploring together, backpacks holding flashlights and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. One day they slip through a wire fence. It’s exciting, picking their way through mysterious construction works, until a group of Observers find them. Max’s ears drip blood and Etta cries, though she tries not to. Max doesn’t come exploring again.

oOo

Etta’s eighth grade teacher is arrested. No-one knows why. Dad tells her not to ask, and she’s disappointed in him, even though she knows he’s being sensible. She runs up to her bedroom, locks the door, and climbs up on her chair to unscrew the ventilation panel above her wardrobe. There’s an envelope inside, and Etta sits on her bed, spreading out the print-outs around her. There are pictures of her dad – her real dad, Peter Bishop – and she wonders if he’d be afraid of the Observers. She doesn’t think so; she doesn’t think he was afraid of anything. Maybe she’s not being fair to Dad, but sometimes Etta remembers what it felt like, being held by her real parents, and Mom and Dad love her, but it’s not the same.

oOo

Etta is young when her parents die, but she knows her name and she knows their names, and she tells the man over and over again. She tells him her name is Henrietta Bishop but everyone calls her Etta. Her daddy is called Peter and her momma is called Olivia and Grandpa is called Walter and Astrid is called Aspirin (that’s just a joke, Etta explains seriously, because Grandpa always calls Astrid the wrong name). Etta tells the man over and over, and writes down her address, zip code and everything, in large, careful letters, just like Momma taught her. The man cocks his head, but doesn’t take the piece of paper, and Etta is sent to a foster home.

Etta remembers her parents’ names, uses them to search for their pictures on the internet, but she doesn’t remember writing down her address for the man until she’s fifteen, when she scribbles down her address for a friend.

oOo

She goes to visit the house where she lived as a child. It’s stupid, but it feels like an adventure, like the adventures she had with Max when she was a kid. She carries her backpack with her ID and a flashlight. She’s almost surprised that the address is real, that it’s a real house. She remembers it, hazily, almost like a dream, or maybe that’s the light shining on the dust motes that rise from the rubble up and down the street.

The house is empty, abandoned, and Etta thinks maybe no-one has been here in over ten years, not since the Purge, not since her parents died. Except the house is mostly empty, so there’ve been looters here if no-one else. Etta goes upstairs and her bedroom is there, behind the door she opens instinctively. There are yellow walls and white floorboards and nothing else. The house is like a ghost.

She opens more doors into more empty rooms. One of them, at the front of the house, was her parents’ bedroom. Etta’s not sure how she knows, but she just does; mornings waking up early, jumping into her parents’ bed. Or maybe she’s imagining it.

Etta doesn’t know why she came but wishes she hadn’t. This isn’t nice. This isn’t how she remembers home, empty and dusty.

In the hallway, behind the front door, there’s a hill of waste paper. Etta sits down, back against the door, and shuffles through it. It’s old, all of it, some of it faded into oblivion. There’s junk mail and catalogues, flyers and missing person notices. There’s a letter addressed to Peter Bishop, reminding him that his eye check is due. Etta folds it up carefully and puts it in her backpack. There’s a bill addressed to both her parents, for repairs to their car, and Etta starts to fold that, too, when something catches her eye.

oOo

It’s a bright, sunny day, the day the Observers come. Etta remembers playing in the park, remembers her mom smiling at her, remembers her dad holding out his arms for her, remembers noise and chaos and being frightened and alone. Etta remembers being in a big room, a strange unsmiling man watching her, head cocked, as she tells him her name and her parents’ names and her address, and being sent to a foster home because her parents are dead.

In the privacy of her bedroom, Etta spreads out the bill she took from her old house. It’s simple and straightforward and the work to their car is dated a month after the Observers came.

oOo

Etta is fifteen when she realises her parents might not have died in the Purge. She is sixteen when she proves it.

oOo

Henrietta Bishop is a missing person; a cold case; a file no-one has opened in years until Etta opens it in a cold basement in Cambridge. A guy called McCaffey watches the door, twitchy and uncomfortable; he’s Resistance, maybe, Etta’s not sure and doesn’t really care, but she knew someone who knew a guy who knew McCaffey who knew how to get hold of the old police files. Etta finds her own file, a missing person’s report that dates from the day the Observers came. It has her picture, a little blonde kid, and statements from her parents that are signed and dated, and Etta knows that they weren’t dead when she told the man – the Observer – her name and address. They weren’t dead a week later when they were interviewed again, or the following week, or the week after that.

McCaffey twitches more and more, and Etta tucks the file into her backpack.

oOo

Her parents – the parents she lives with – say they’re concerned about her behaviour. She gets a poor report from school. They want to know what she’s doing. Etta lies, and says it’s a boy, and that she’ll do better. She doesn’t mention the envelope, thicker now, that is hidden behind the grate in her bedroom.

oOo

Etta draws a blank on finding more about her parents. The friend of a friend is arrested, she hears; everyone’s too scared of the Observers to tell anyone anything about the Resistance, and they’re the only people Etta can think of who might be able to help her. She sits in class and thinks about how she can find out more.

In the end, Broyles finds her.

oOo

It’s October when Etta comes home from school, swinging open the front door and heading straight for the kitchen. She’s already pouring herself a glass of orange juice when her mom calls her into the living room. There’s a stranger sitting there, in a suit and overcoat. He holds up a badge.

“I’m Phillip Broyles,” he says. “Fringe Division.”

Etta thinks she should be scared, but for some reason she’s not. She says, “OK.” Her mom is wringing her hands, probably thinking that Etta’s about to get dragged to prison or worse.

“I’d like to speak to Etta alone,” Broyles says. Her mom leaves, still wringing her hands. Broyles doesn’t beat around the bush.

“You took a missing person’s report from police storage,” he says.

“Why would I do that?” Etta asks. She thinks – no, she knows this guy. She isn’t surprised when he takes a picture out of his breast pocket and hands it to her. It’s her, her parents, Walter and Astrid, and Broyles. They’re laughing.

Etta says, “Are my parents really dead?”

Broyles shakes his head. “Honestly? I have no idea. They disappeared a long time ago.”

oOo

Etta says, when people ask her, that she doesn’t really remember her parents, but that’s not true. She remembers her mother, how she always felt _safe_ , silky blonde hair smooth under Etta’s hands. She remembers her father, tall and strong and fun, hands firm on her ankles as she rode on his shoulders.

Etta remembers being told they had died. Etta remembers finding out it was a lie.

oOo

Etta is sixteen when she finds out about the original Fringe Department, about Walter’s experiments, about Peter Bishop and Agent Dunham, about the Observers and a plan to stop them; she is seventeen when she joins the Resistance and eighteen when she joins Fringe Division.

She is twenty-four when she finds her parents.

 

 

FIN


End file.
